(Newser)
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Melissa Etheridge is Rick Warren’s new best friend. She met with the pastor last week, after finding out they were set to perform at the same event, and discovered he's not, as expected, a "hate spouting, money grabbing, bad hair televangelist," one of those guys who has "his own gay little secret bathroom stall somewhere, you know." In the Huffington Post, she urges fellow gay-marriage advocates not to protest or boycott the man Obama’s invited to do the invocation at his inauguration, but to reach out.

Etheridge thinks Warren’s much-criticized sermon opposing Prop 8 doesn’t represent the full measure of the man. “He said he regretted his choice of words in his video message to his congregation about Prop 8, when he mentioned pedophiles and those who commit incest. He said that in no way, is that how he thought about gays.” He believes "every loving relationship should have equal protection,” writes Etheridge, and she's confident the country is moving that way.